


you'll have this place to call home, always

by connorswhisk



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: 3 + 1, Canon Speculation, F/F, Pining, merry xmas pix :)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:56:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28297887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/connorswhisk/pseuds/connorswhisk
Summary: So now Amity’s standing in the bathroom of the Owl House, hands braced on the sink, willing herself not to cry, about to say goodbye to her best friend for possibly the last time ever.(And there’ll be other crushes, there always have been, but no one is like Luz Noceda, no one could ever hope to be like Luz Noceda, and Amity needs to come to terms with that fact)Or, three times Amity Blight knew she had a crush on Luz Noceda + the one time she knew she was in love with her.
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda
Comments: 11
Kudos: 167





	you'll have this place to call home, always

**Author's Note:**

> title taken from godspeed by frank ocean
> 
> for pixley <3

**1.**

Luz volunteers to take Amity’s place as Grom Queen, and Amity hates her for it.

Luz isn’t _supposed_ to do that. Amity was chosen, it’s her job to face her fears (and boy, are they pretty big fears), but Luz just won’t _listen._

“It’s ok,” she reassures Amity, brown eyes shining with determination. “I’ll do it so you don’t have to. I’ll fight Grometheus, and you’ll be fine.”

And Amity just nods, and Luz smiles, and Amity can’t say anything to stop her.

_Stupid._ Luz doesn’t know enough magic to do this, Luz is too headstrong to do this, Luz…Luz could get hurt. And it would be Amity’s fault if that happened.

And the fact that Luz is _choosing_ to do this for her…

And Amity is _letting_ her.

The paper weighs heavy in her pocket, pressed in between her schoolbooks, safely clutched in between her fingers. No matter where Amity puts the note, she feels its presence, always paranoid that she’ll drop it, always afraid that someone will see it, always terrified that she’ll give it to Luz and Luz will…will _laugh._

And then Amity will have to run into the woods and become a hermit and live in the Bat Queen’s cave, or change her name and start a new life as far away as possible from the Boiling Isles, or _something._ Something. Escape her shame _somehow._

She wishes she could _tell_ someone how she feels about Luz, but that isn’t really an option for her. She’s still not totally cool with Willow, she _barely_ knows Gus, there’s no _way_ she’s telling Edric and Emira. And Boscha? Forget about it.

“I’m nervous.”

Amity looks up, quickly stashing the note away. Luz looks great in her dress/jacket combo. Amity feels her heart pound.

“You look nice,” Amity tells her, hoping she doesn’t trip over her words what with all the blood rushing in her ears. “Strange, but nice.”

Luz grins. Amity clenches the note tighter and smiles shakily back.

“Thanks,” Amity says. “Thanks for doing this, Luz. You’re really brave. I mean,” Amity looks away, tucks a strand of her hair behind her ear nervously. “You’ve done things I could never do.”

Luz laughs. “Are you going soft on me, Blight?”

Amity smiles. “In your dreams.”

Luz leaves, and Amity stuffs the folded pink paper back in her pocket and joins the others in the bleachers.

“Are you ok?” Willow asks.

“I’m worried about her,” Amity says.

“Me too. But she’s gonna be just fine. She’s Luz.”

Amity swallows and twists her hands together. “Right. Right.”

And so it goes, Eda and Willow cheering loudly, Gus and King emceeing, and Amity trying to support Luz alongside them, but mostly just feeling really mixed-up inside, and wishing…

What _does_ Amity wish? Not that she were home, because then she wouldn’t know what’s happening to Luz. And definitely not that _she_ were fighting Grom instead, because then Luz would _know -_

“It’s her _mom,_ ” Eda says, as Grom takes the form of an older woman who looks a lot like Luz.

“Oh no,” Willow gasps, and then she grabs Amity’s hand and says, “Let’s go!”

Willow pulls Amity out to the hall, Gus and the others hot on their heels. “Which way did they go?”

“I think they went outside!” Amity says.

The woods outside Hexside are so dark at this time of night that Amity can hardly see, but she pushes forward, Willow right beside her.

They find Luz and her Grom-Mom in a clearing illuminated by starlight.

“ _What do we do?_ ” Willow whispers desperately.

“ _I don’t know,_ ” Amity says, head reeling. “ _I’m thinking._ ”

Then Eda zooms overhead on her staff, and Amity stops thinking and darts out to put herself between Grom and Luz.

“Stay away from her!” Amity looks behind her. “I’m sorry, Luz. I shouldn’t have let you do this. I should’ve fought my own battle.”

“Amity - Amity your fear!”

Luz’s mother disappears, replaced by - well, by _Luz,_ or something akin to her, anyway. It reaches its cold fingers into Amity’s dress pocket and pulls out her note, then rips it in half, lets the pieces float to the ground.

Amity snatches the one that she knows will give her up and looks away. She doesn’t want to see Luz’s expression.

“You were afraid of getting rejected.”

Amity looks up. Luz is holding one half of the note, the half that won’t give away Amity’s secret.

Amity swallows. “Yeah.”

“Hey, it’s ok,” Luz says softly. “What if I went to Grom with you instead?”

“Huh?”

Luz smiles and holds out her hand.

Amity has a three-second long heart attack before remembering that Luz is expecting her to take her hand, so she does.

“Really?” Amity asks, throat dry. “For real?”

Luz nods. “That’s what friends are for.”

And, yeah, maybe it hurts a little to know that Luz only sees her as a friend, but Amity Blight is still going to Grom with Luz Noceda, and that’s…that’s _amazing._

“So,” Luz asks, after they dance Grom back to the depths of the school from whence it came. “Who did you wanna ask out?”

Amity can feel her cheeks turning pink. “Oh, it’s…it’s not important.”

She quickly throws the other half of the note on the ground. The sooner the incriminating evidence is off her body, the better.

That doesn’t matter right now, anyway. What matters is that Amity just survived being Grom Queen with Luz, and she’s going to spend the rest of the night dancing with all of her friends.

So she does, and she has a lot of fun doing it, and at the end of the night, Luz kisses her on the cheek before she goes, and Amity’s face is still blazing hot ten minutes afterwards.

“Hey,” Amity says. “Ready to head home?”

Emira shrugs. “Yeah, I guess.” She looks glum, and so does Edric.

Amity frowns. “What, did you guys not have a good time or something?”

Edric scowls. “Both of our dates stood us up, Mittens,” he says. “We didn’t really get up to much.”

“Oh. I’m sorry,” Amity says sincerely. “I didn’t know.”

And she does feel a little bad, because she’d spent the whole night having a lot of fun, and she hadn’t even noticed that her siblings weren’t.

“Well, maybe we’ll have better luck next year,” Emira says, throwing her arm around Amity’s shoulders. “At least you had a good time, huh, Mittens?”

“Yeah,” Amity says, smiling. “Yeah, I did.”

And then it sort of just spills out of her, without her meaning to, without her even thinking about it. “I have a crush on Luz.”

Edric laughs. “Well, yeah, _duh._ ”

Amity flushes. “Is it really that obvious?”

“Not really,” Edric says. “But we’re your siblings - ”

“ - We’re supposed to notice these things about you,” Emira finishes. “Come on, let’s get home before Mom and Dad start blowing up our phones.”

And if Amity’s brother and sister notice that she has a little spring in her step and a tiny smile on her face as she walks in between them, well, they don’t say anything about it.

**2.**

One year later, and Amity is _wishing_ that things could be as simple as they had been at Grom, where all she had to worry about was whether or not Luz would reject her.

“Amity! On your left!”

Amity rolls out of the way just in time. A member of the Emperor’s guard lashes out with his spear, but Amity is too quick for him. She directs her Abomination, and it picks the guard up and throws him to the ground, where he remains, motionless.

Amity takes a moment to catch her breath. “Good job,” she says to her Abomination. It grunts and lumbers off to smash some more skulls.

“Thanks for the heads up, Lilith!” she calls.

“Not a problem!” Lilith yells back, and then turns to fend off another group of lackeys.

The skirmish with the Emperor’s guards hadn’t exactly been planned. The team mostly tries to stay away from them as much as possible, to avoid unnecessary conflict, but this morning, Amity had woken up to the sounds of an ambush - some of the guards had found their home base, and once they’re finished here, the team is probably going to have to relocate.

Amity looks around, trying to find someone to fight, seeing if she can spot anyone who needs her help. Eda and King are doing fine on their own, and Willow is kicking major ass with her vines, but Gus seems to be cornered by a group of guards, one of them holding onto his wrists, and there’s only so much he can do to defend himself with his illusions gone.

“Abomination!” Amity calls. “Get them!”

Her Abomination tosses aside the body he’s just been throwing around and heads straight for Gus’s guard, dispatching him easily. With his hands now free, Gus duplicates his body until there’s four of him, which quickly take down the rest of the enemy.

“Thanks, Amity,” Gus says, his clones disappearing until there’s just one of him again.

“Don’t mention it,” Amity starts to say, but Gus’s eyes get big and he points at something behind her and shouts, “Watch out!”

Amity turns to see the captain of the guard (he must be - he’s the biggest, burliest, fiercest-looking member of the bunch. That and there’s a captain’s badge on his chest) raising his fist high. She instinctually squeezes her eyes shut and cowers, bracing for impact.

It never comes. Instead, there’s a crunch, and a grunt, and then a strangled yell. Amity opens her eyes again.

There’s a column of ice protruding from the dirt at Amity’s feet, exactly where the guard had been moments before. Now, he’s lying still on the ground ten paces away.

“Nice one,” Amity says, grinning, her heart racing.

“Any time,” Luz says, smiling back and coming around to stand in front of her. “Lucky I was here.”

“No kidding.” Amity glances around at all the fighting. Most of the platoon is out of commission - the witches may be outnumbered here, but they’re far stronger.

“Good job, Luz!” Gus says, before running off to help King.

“Thanks, Gus!” Luz calls after him, shooting him finger guns and grinning wide. It honestly amazes Amity how _positive_ Luz manages to stay, even in the middle of a fight.

“How much longer do you think?” Amity asks. “Ugh, packing up camp is going to _suck._ ”

Luz grabs her hands. This is a relatively new thing, all the physical contact Luz has been giving her lately. Amity should be used to it by now.

She isn’t used to it at all. Luz’s hands are just so soft and warm…

“Yeah, it will,” Luz is telling her. “But it’s ok. And I don’t think we’ll be fighting these jokers for much longer.”

She smiles, and Amity can’t help it - she smiles back. Luz is really close right now. Close enough that Amity can see every tiny brown freckle on the bridge of her nose, can count every one of her dark eyelashes, has a magnified view of Luz’s irises, her smile, her lips…

_Kiss her,_ Amity’s traitor brain suggests. _Come on, she’s so close to you, and she’s smiling, and you’ve liked her for a year, and who cares if you’re literally in a battle right now? It’s_ Luz, _and you’ve had a crush on her for so long._

“Amity,” Luz says quietly.

Amity’s heart beats faster. “What?”

_Do it,_ her brain says. _Just go for it._

“Luz, I - “

And then Luz gets stabbed in the side by a spear.

“Luz!” Amity shrieks.

“That’s gonna leave a mark,” Luz grunts weakly, and falls facedown in the dirt.

Amity can see the captain a couple of feet away, hand still outstretched from his lucky throw.

“That’s for the ice!” he growls.

Amity sees _red._ One second she’s standing over Luz’s bleeding form, the next the captain is being whipped around left and right by Amity’s Abomination, who slams him repeatedly into the ground before chucking him into the air, sending his body in a wide arc and directly into a large tree trunk.

Amity knows there’s no time to waste. She quickly hurries to Luz and crouches at her side, rolling her body over. The spear is still lodged beneath her armpit, but Amity knows better than to pull it out. If she did, Luz would just bleed more, and there is already a _lot_ of blood.

“Luz! Luz! Can you hear me?”

Luz groans faintly, eyelids fluttering. “Amity?”

“Come on,” Amity says, grunting as she slings an arm around Luz’s waist and pulls her up. “We need to get you to the medic tent.”

“Ok,” Luz pants, as Amity starts to drag her across the field. “Ok, just - just go slowly please.”

There are just a couple of guards left now. It’ll only be a matter of time before someone notices -

“Luz!”

One of Willow’s vines drops her right in front of them. “What happened?” she asks, looking panicked.

“Guard threw a spear,” Amity says. “Don’t touch it!” she yells when Willow reaches for the weapon still embedded in Luz’s side.

“I can take her back to the medic tent,” Willow says quickly, looking desperate for some way to help. “With my plants, we can get there faster.”

“Yeah, ok,” Amity says, nodding. Without further delay, Willow summons a giant flower and helps Luz climb onto it.

“Amity,” Luz mutters. “Amity.”

“I’ll meet you there,” Amity says. “Ok? Go with Willow.”

Luz nods, but her eyes are already starting to flutter shut again, and her head is drooping onto Willow’s shoulder.

“See you in a minute,” Willow says, and manipulates the flower’s vines so that she and Luz are carried across the clearing in just a few long strides.

Amity is left behind, hands and clothes stained with Luz’s blood, with only her Abomination for company.

“You can go now,” she says to it, and her voice shakes when she speaks. Her Abomination grunts one last time before sinking back into a puddle of purple goo.

On the other side of the clearing, Eda knocks out the last guard. “Woo!” she says, cackling. “I haven’t felt a rush like that in a while.” She catches sight of Amity. “Whoa, kid, that your blood?”

Amity shakes her head, and when did she start crying? “It’s Luz’s.”

Eda’s expression turns. Her jaw clenches. “Where is she?”

“Med tent,” Amity manages to get out. Eda starts to run, and Amity only realizes she follows her once they’re already there.

Luz is spread out one of the cots, unconscious, her left side completely soaked with blood. Viney leans over her, pressing a cloth with some sort of salve on it to the wound, muttering frantic words of incantation under her breath. Willow and Gus are hovering along the sidelines, looking frightened and unsure of what to do.

“Is she going to be ok?” Eda demands.

Viney nods, lips pressed tightly together, forehead drenched with sweat. “She should be fine, if I can do this right.”

“You’d _better_ do it right,” Eda warns, then takes a seat beside the cot and scowls down at Luz’s body.

“Eda, will you help me take the spear out?” Viney asks. Eda nods. Viney turns to the rest of them. “Guys, I know you’re worried about Luz, but it would honestly be really great if you could leave until I’m finished. It’ll help me concentrate better.”

“Of course, Viney,” Willow says, and she and Gus walk out, exchanging worried glances.

Amity wavers for a moment. “Is there anything I can - ?”

“Amity.” Viney closes her eyes and pinches at the bridge of her nose. “Please just go away.”

Amity nods. “Ok.”

Willow and Gus must have gone into one of the other tents, because they aren’t outside when Amity leaves the med station. She’s sort of ok with that. Having to talk to people right now would just be too much for her.

Instead she can sit here, on this stump, jiggle her leg nervously, and try not to think about all the ways that everything could go wrong from here. Viney had said that Luz would be fine, but what if Viney was wrong? And there’s still a chance she could mess something up with her healing magic and somehow make it worse…What if when Amity went to take out the guard who threw the spear she wasted precious seconds of Luz’s life? If Luz _dies_ because of _Amity,_ she’ll - she’ll -

“She’s ok.”

Eda sinks down next to Amity, running a tired and bloodstained hand across her face. How long has it been? Minutes? Hours?

Amity’s heart races. “You got the spear out? Is she awake?”

Eda nods. “Yeah, it’s out. She’s up. Pretty weak, but she wants to see you.”

Amity feels her cheeks pink. “Oh, well - “ She fiddles with some of the strands of her hair. “I mean, Willow and Gus are her _best_ friends, they should go first - “

“Kid,” Eda says. “She’s asking to see _you._ ”

Amity swallows. “Oh. Ok.”

She doesn’t move. Eda rolls her eyes.

“So get going!”

“Yeah,” Amity says, standing up quickly. “Yes, going…”

Luz is sitting upright in the cot, propped up by about five pillows. Her eyes are closed, but they open as Amity gets closer, and Luz smiles at her weakly.

“Hey, Amity,” she says quietly.

“Hi, Luz.” Amity falters for a second before sitting down in the chair Eda had been occupying before.

Viney’s in the corner of the tent, washing her hands in a basin of water. She looks exhausted. “I’ll leave you two alone,” she says through a yawn, and exits the tent.

A heavy silence falls. Amity coughs.

“So, um. How do you feel?” she asks, and then internally cringes. “I mean, obviously not _great,_ but. You know. What I mean.”

Luz snorts softly. “It hurts,” she says. “But it hurt a lot more before.”

“Yeah.” Amity hesitates, then slides her hand on top of Luz’s, ignoring the way her stomach flops. “Hey, you know what this reminds me of? When the Good Witch Azura got - “

“ - Impaled by a Slogdavian warrior,” Luz finishes, grinning. “I was thinking that, too. I also thought about the episode of _Star Trek_ where it flashes back to when Captain Picard got stabbed in a bar brawl, except I didn’t laugh when the spear hit me like he did.”

Amity frowns. “What’s _Star Trek?_ ”

Luz stares at her. “You don’t have _Star Trek_ on the Boiling Isles? Oh man, you’re missing _out._ Sometime, you should come to my house in the human world and we can - “

She breaks off, eyes widening. If Amity didn’t know any better, she’d say Luz was nervous.

“Really?” Amity asks, hoping she doesn’t sound too eager. “You’d let me come visit the human world with you?”

Luz looks away and shrugs. “Uh, yeah. If that’s something you wanted to do.”

Amity smiles and squeezes Luz’s hand. Luz squeezes back. “I’d like that. You’d have to bring Gus, too, though. He’d go nuts.”

Luz laughs. “Yeah, he really would.” She pauses for a moment, and then she says, “Thank you, Amity.”

“For what?”

“For saving me,” Luz says.

Amity flushes. “Oh,” she mumbles. “Well, I mean, that wasn’t _really_ me.”

Luz makes a face. “What do you mean? You were right there when I got stabbed. You helped me.”

“Well, _yeah,_ ” Amity says sheepishly, not meeting Luz’s eyes. “But Willow was the one who brought you here. And Viney and Eda took the spear out and bandaged you up. I didn’t actually do anything.”

“Yes, you did!” Luz leans forward, winces, and leans back again, pressing a hand to her side. “Ouch. But stop being so modest, Amity! You helped save me, and I’m saying thank you for that.”

“I - “

“Don’t try it, Blight.”

Amity sighs. “Ok. You’re welcome, Luz. I’m glad you’re all right.”

Luz grins. “Yeah. Me too.” And she squeezes Amity’s hand again, and Amity’s heart feels like a pinball machine.

She almost says something. She isn’t sure what, but she almost says _something_ to Luz, and her lips are just parting to form the words when -

“Luz! You’re ok!”

Amity quickly pulls her hand back as Willow and Gus fling themselves at Luz into a group hug, and Luz drags Amity into it, too, and they stay in the tent and all talk for a long time, until Viney shows up and orders them to leave so Luz can get her rest.

Before Amity gets up to go, Luz reaches down and squeezes her hand one last time.

**3.**

“You coming?”

Amity turns to King. “Yeah,” she says quietly. “I just - I need a minute.”

King shrugs. “Suit yourself.”

He leaves, and Amity shuts the door behind him.

Luz is going home, and Amity isn’t ready to say goodbye.

Taking down the Emperor had been a lot. So many people hurt. So many parts of the Boiling Isles destroyed. So many people _lost_ (Principal Bump. Lilith. Edric, _her brother, her older brother, her blood, her family_ ), and the losses still ache with the weight of all the things left unsaid, left undone.

They’d done it anyway. _Luz_ had done it.

And the world is ok again.

But now Luz is leaving. She’s left before, to go home for a few months, explain everything to her mother and go back to human school, but that had been temporary.

This time…well, by all signs, this time is going to be _permanent._ Eda says that the magic world is too fragile after the Emperor’s demise to continue to uphold the gateway to the human world. Too many comings and goings, backs and forths, and it could rip a hole in space and time.

Or something like that.

So Luz had had to make a difficult choice.

“You know I love it here,” she’d told Amity, Willow, and Gus, tears forming in her eyes. “You guys are my best friends. I love doing magic and hanging out with you more than anything, but…” She’d sniffled. “I can’t leave my mom.”

“We understand,” Willow had said, but her eyes were red, and Amity and Gus hadn’t said anything at all, Gus because he was crying too much to, and Amity because she hadn’t known what to say.

She still doesn’t. And did she ever? She’s only sixteen, but…everything is so confusing.

Eda says that maybe, after a while, the gateway will restabilize itself, and that Luz will be able to come back. But it’s a pretty big _maybe._

So now Amity’s standing in the bathroom of the Owl House, hands braced on the sink, willing herself not to cry, about to say goodbye to her best friend for possibly the last time ever.

_(And there’ll be other crushes, there always have been, but no one is like Luz Noceda, no one could ever_ hope _to be like Luz Noceda, and Amity needs to come to terms with that fact)_

She can’t go out there. Because if she does, it makes it all the more real. Because if she _doesn’t_ go outside, then Luz can never leave.

“Amity!” Gus’s voice calls.

Amity rubs at her eyes. “Yeah, I’m coming!”

And she goes.

Eda’s portal is set up in the clearing outside the house, edges pulsating slightly with a fuzzy golden light. Through the door, Amity can catch a glimpse of a forest in the human world. The forest doesn’t look much different from the one in the Boiling Isles, except the leaves are much greener, and there are weird furry rodents - _squirrels,_ Luz had called them - climbing up and down the trunks of the trees.

Amity had considered running in after Luz. Packing a bag and going in with her. But she can’t ditch Emira, not now that Edric is gone, and she doesn’t want to leave Willow and Gus, either…there really is no way for her to win.

Luz is standing by the portal, but Amity finds it hard to look at her, so she stares at the dirt where she shuffles her feet, drawing swirling patterns and runes that look a lot like the glyphs Luz uses for her magic. She’s dimly aware of Luz exchanging words with Eda and King, and someone (all three of them, maybe) crying loudly, but she doesn’t pay it any mind. Just keeps scuffing the dirt and getting her shoes a little stained, but that’s fine with her, just fine.

And then Luz says, “Hey.”

And Amity comes back down out of the clouds, and looks up to see Luz in front of her, crying.

“Sorry about the waterworks,” Luz sobs, rubbing the back of her hand across her face. “I’m just gonna miss you guys so _much._ ”

“Yeah,” Willow says, tears streaming out from beneath her glasses. “We’re gonna miss you, too.”

Luz hugs her. “Thanks for always being there for me.”

And then Gus. “Thanks for being one of the coolest guys I’ve ever met.”

Gus chokes out something about human food, and Luz laughs and says, “Ok, I will.”

And then Luz pulls the both of them into a hug, and says some quiet words, and they laugh and hug and break apart.

And finally, Luz looks at Amity.

“Luz,” Amity murmurs.

Luz smiles. “Amity. Thanks for…for being you.”

Amity nods. There’s a lump in her throat, and she can’t speak, can’t speak at all. She just nods.

“Come here,” Luz mutters, and pulls Amity into the best hug of her life.

“Love you,” Luz whispers, and Amity feels her face burn.

“Love you, too,” Amity whispers back, and wonders if Luz knows just what she means by that.

Luz leans back and softly pokes at Amity’s ears. “Promise we’ll watch _Star Trek_ together someday, ok, Spock?”

“I don’t know who that is,” Amity says, and she’s crying really hard now. “I don’t know who that is, but I’ll watch all of it with you. And I’ll read all the _Good Witch Azura_ books, and I’ll think of you.”

“Yeah,” Luz says, grinning. “Me too.”

She turns to the others, so she’s facing all of them. “I love all of you guys so, so much.”

And this group hug feels like the last, because it _is_ the last, and they all know it, but nobody wants to say it.

Luz steps back. She gives one final hug to Eda and King, and then picks up her bag, and stands in front of the portal.

“Bye,” she says one last time, and steps through.

And Amity swears that the door slamming makes the same sound as her breaking heart.

******\+ 1**

“Sorry to ask again, Amity,” Dmitri says sheepishly, rubbing the back of their neck. “But how many petals of crysantheris am I supposed to add?”

Amity sighs internally. She loves helping the kids out, she really, honestly does, but she doesn’t know enough about the potions track to be tutoring for it. Normally, she’d only be handling the Abomination track kids, but Rowan is out sick and had asked her to cover for him, so here she is, nineteen years old and a Hexside graduate, helping out a group of freshmen who have absolutely no _clue_ what they’re talking about.

And neither does Amity.

She plasters on a (what she hopes is helpful-looking) smile and consults the text Rowan sent her with all the potions track basics. “Seven crysantheris petals,” she reports.

“Oh, right.” Dmitri scribbles something down on their roll of parchment. “Thanks.”

Amity goes back to her crossword puzzle. “Sure thing.”

Ok, so she hadn’t exactly _planned_ on becoming a TA after graduation. She’d been lucky just to graduate at all, after the war, and tutoring new students hadn’t exactly been on her top ten list of most ideal careers. But it’s temporary - she’ll figure something else out, _eventually,_ she’ll find somewhere to take her in, somewhere with some preferably very high wages.

Being a TA isn’t bad, though. And the pay isn’t _terrible._ Amity enjoys it, she enjoys helping nervous little kids because she once _was_ a nervous little kid, and she feels at home in Hexside, within its walls and on its grounds.

Plus, she’s lucky to have such a steady job at all. Unemployment in the Boiling Isles has been a bit of a problem since the war. Whatever Amity can earn to take home to the flat she shares with her sister, she’ll take. They’ve got to work for themselves, ever since Mom and Dad cut off their cash flow, and the right to their own home.

Mom and Dad were big supporters of the Emperor, you see.

_(Amity remembers a time when all she wanted was to join the Emperor’s Coven. To prove herself. To be the best that it was possible to be, and to make the Blight family name shine._

_What a naive, stupid little girl she was.)_

But life goes on. Amity’s good where she is right now, but things could be better, and with luck, they’ll head that way.

Only after another hour of potions tutoring, of course.

Ugh.

“Um, excuse me? Amity?”

Amity snaps out of her reverie. “Hm?”

“Well, we were just wondering,” Orla says, flushing slightly and avoiding direct eye contact. “I mean - you fought the Emperor, right? You were part of the resistance effort.”

Amity feels a little sorry for the poor girl. Obviously, she must have drawn the short straw.

But it’s not like she actually has anything to be _afraid_ of.

“Yeah, I fought in the resistance,” Amity says casually, filling out the word _grandiose_ in her crossword. “Did you want to ask me anything in particular about it, or…?”

Orla blushes deeply. “Oh, you know, just - what was it like? What was it like to fight alongside the Owl Lady and everyone else?”

The other students have all stopped working, waiting with bated breath for Amity’s answer.

Amity closes her crossword book.

“Well,” she says. “It was like fighting with your best friends, because that’s what they were to me. And it was scary - but it was necessary.” She stares down at the black screen of her phone, fiddling absentmindedly with the case. “I’m…honestly not the best storyteller. You’d be better off asking Gus Porter or Willow Park. They’ve got that apothecary downtown. They love telling tales about all the trouble we got into while we were in the resistance.” Amity smiles to herself, remembering. “Especially Gus.”

“Oh,” Orla says, sounding slightly disappointed. “Ok.”

Amity sighs. “Look, I’d tell you more, but it’s not really something that I - Hang on. Gimme one second.”

Her phone’s ringing. Amity stands up and steps behind a bookshelf a few feet away from her table, somewhere a little more private, just in case.

“Hey, Gus,” she says when she answers it. “Look, I’d love to chat, but I’m in the middle of a session right now. I’ll call you back later, or I’ll come and swing by the shop if you want, but - “

“Amity.”

She frowns. “Eda? What are you doing on Gus’s cell phone?”

“Didn’t have one of my own to call you with,” Eda says flippantly. “But, kid, I wanted you to know - I mean, I could have just made Gus tell you, but King has been bugging me for years about getting one of these fancy doohickeys anyhow, so I figured I needed the practice at it - also it’s more dramatic for _me_ to tell you I think, but that’s kinda beside the point - “

“ _Eda._ What is it?”

“It’s Luz,” Eda says breathlessly. “Luz is back.”

Amity’s heart stops beating for just a split second, a split second full of brown eyes and notes on pink paper and warm hands, and then it kicks, abruptly, back into rhythm.

“ _Wh - What?_ ”

“She’s here,” Eda is saying. “She’s back, the portal’s up and running again, and I meant to tell you a couple of days ago when I figured out that it was, but Luz just came back, Amity, she’s really, really _back._ ”

Amity’s stomach does a series of complicated backflips in quick succession. She isn’t ready for this yet, sure, it’s been three years, but she isn’t _ready,_ she won’t know what to say, and she won’t know what to do, and _Luz_ is _back,_ and -

“Kid? You still there?”

“Yeah,” Amity gasps. “Yeah, I’m still here.”

“Ok. I know you’re teaching at Hexside right now, but when you’re done, you should come by the house - “

“I’m coming right now,” Amity says, rushing out of the stacks and quickly throwing all her stuff into her bag. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

“If you run you could probably make it in six,” Eda suggests, and then she hangs up.

Amity stuffs her phone into her pocket and throws her bag over her shoulder.

“Amity? Where are you going?” Dmitri asks, looking confused. Their peers all wear similar bemused expressions.

“I - I have to go do something,” Amity says. “It’s important, I - I’m not coming back, so just - ask another TA to help you if you have any questions, and I’ll - I’ll see you all later.”

She all but sprints out the door.

Eda was right - running is definitely going to get her there quicker, so that’s what she does, dodging students and members of staff alike, dashing out the double doors and down the front steps, across the lawns and into the woods and on the path, racing faster and faster and paying no mind to her burning legs because all she can think is _Luz, Luz, Luz._

It’s been three years, and Amity no longer has a crush on Luz Noceda.

She’s in love with her.

And she thought she’d never get the chance to tell her, or even to see her again at all.

She’d tried moving on, she really had. Amity had dated a couple of different people since Luz left for the human world. But none of those relationships were really ever that serious, and _none_ of them lasted longer than six months, and, well, they just weren’t _Luz._

Oh God, what is Amity going to _say_ to her?

She’ll just have to make it up as she goes.

The Owl House is quick to come into view, and when Amity sees it her heart soars and her stomach gives a frantic jump. She flies down the drive, swift, and up the steps (completely ignoring Hooty’s “Hiya, Amity, hoot hoot!”), throws open the door, and -

Luz is sitting on the couch with a mug of tea, Eda and Willow and Gus surrounding her, King happily seated on her lap. She glances up when Amity enters, and she looks surprised for a moment, and she looks the same as she always did, older, but the same, and then her eyes crinkle at the corners and her mouth turns up and she says, softly, “Hey.”

And Amity, panting, red-faced, slightly sweaty Amity, tired, overworked, teacher’s aideAmity, disowned, down-on-her-luck, making-ends-meet Amity says - she says - _says_ -

“I’m in love with you.”

Which isn’t what she’d meant to say at all.

For a moment, it’s so quiet in the Owl House that Amity can hear Hooty scuffling around for termites to eat in the wood of the door outside.

“Willow! Gus!” Eda stands up suddenly and claps her hands together. “What do you say we go for a quick walk, yeah? You too, King, let’s go.”

“Yes!” Willow stands, too and grabs Gus by the arm. “A walk sounds great!”

Gus smiles huge, all clenched teeth and feeling that doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “Delightful!”

“Why do I have to go?” King demands. “I wanna see what happens next, come on, Eda, can’t I just - “

Eda snatches King from out of Luz’s lap. “Zip it, Skippy. Come on.”

Amity steps aside and lets them all file out of the house, and the door seems to close with a kind of harsh finality.

Amity looks at Luz, and Luz looks back.

“Hi,” Amity tries again, voice wavering. “Welcome home.”

“Come here,” Luz says. She pats the space on the couch next to her.

And Amity - her legs seeming to move completely of their own accord - sits.

Luz doesn’t look angry, but to tell the truth, she doesn’t look _anything._ Her eyes betray no emotion, her face sits plain and unmoving, her movements give nothing away. She isn’t… _anything._

Oh _fuck,_ what has Amity _done?_

“So - “ Amity swallows, unable to look away from Luz’s eyes, and _God,_ she’s missed those fucking eyes with an impossible ardor, hungrily and emptily and so many other ways she can’t quite articulate. “So, how are things in the human world? How’s your mom? How’s school? Life? Are you - “

Luz reaches out and Amity stops talking. Luz is touching her hair, letting the strands pass through her fingers and staring at it almost in amusement, a small smile playing at her lips.

“You grew it out,” she remarks, raising her eyebrows at the length, which falls a little past Amity’s shoulders now.

Amity nods. “Yes.”

That small smile grows wider. “It looks really nice.”

“Oh.” Amity’s cheeks turn a little pink, and suddenly she’s fourteen again, and Luz is asking her out to Grom, and her mind is reeling like crazy. “Thanks.”

Luz slowly starts to pull her hand away, and without thinking, Amity traps it against her cheek, underneath her own palm.

“Luz,” she breathes.

Luz’s chest rises and falls at a steady pace, and Amity watches it. “How long have you been in love with me?” she asks.

Amity closes her eyes and lets her face burn. “I don’t know. I think I figured it out not long after you left. I had a crush on you before then, though. Almost - “ She takes a shaky breath. “Almost from the beginning.”

“Oh,” Luz murmurs. “Oh.”

“Sorry,” Amity whispers, feeling suddenly and starkly _ashamed._ “Sorry for - just - _sorry._ ”

Luz’s thumb moves to brush away the tears Amity hadn’t realized were falling, and she says, “I love you, too. I have for years. And I’m going to kiss you now, ok?”

“ _Ok,_ ” Amity sobs, breath catching.

And Luz kisses her. And then she kisses her again. And again.

And Amity kisses back.

“ _Luz,_ ” she says.

“ _Amity,_ ” Luz says back, and kisses her deeper.

And the tension, the ever-present and over-bearing tension, starts to seep out of Amity’s shoulders, bit by bit, until it’s gone entirely.

Amity holds Luz’s hands. “We’re idiots.”

Luz hums, pressing a tender kiss to Amity’s palm, and Amity _aches._ “Maybe a little bit. I think King and Eda might have been betting on us, actually.”

Amity snorts. “Sounds about right.” And then she says, “I really love you, Luz. I missed you _so much._ ”

Luz grins. “I really love you, too, Amity. And I missed you more than I know how to tell you.”

Another kiss, another twinge in Amity’s chest.

“They’re going to be back soon,” Amity mutters against Luz’s warm, warm lips. “We should act normal.”

“Hmm, ok.” Luz leans back. “All right, let’s talk about something normal. Have you read the last three _Good Witch Azura_ books?”

Amity smiles. “You know I have.”

And Luz - Luz smiles back, and Amity’s heart soars.

**Author's Note:**

> happy holidays to everyone! may your holiday season bring light and joy :)
> 
> hope you enjoyed, pix. ily <3
> 
> follow me on [tumblr](https://connorswhisk.tumblr.com) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/connorswhisk)


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